Why it’s so easy to get started with Veeam

When I first started working with Veeam Software before becoming a Veeam Vanguard and joining the Veeam Product Strategy Team, one of the things that was so appealing was that it was so easy to get started with and use.

Before I knew it, I was backing up and restoring virtual machines with ease. Now, I want to take a closer look at what makes Veeam products so easy to use and get started with.

Veeam just works

Like many people who love technology out there, I tend to leap before I look. Many times, beyond installation requirements I will not actually ready any how-to-get-started guides if I am working in a lab. Has this come back and bitten me at times? Sure it has, but with Veeam, it has not.

This goes beyond Veeam’s flagship product, Veeam Backup & Replication and extends to things like Veeam ONE, Veeam Availability Orchestrator, and extends to advanced features like storage integration. I haven’t met a Veeam product I found difficult to install.

Top-notch product documentation

After installing Veeam Backup & Replication and backing up and restoring a couple of virtual machines, I wondered what else I was missing. As it turns out, I was missing quite a lot! The good news is that Veeam product documentation is top notch.

When I was getting started with Veeam, I primarily worked with Veeam Backup & Replication for VMware vSphere. There were two documents I read from back to front:

The Veeam Backup & Replication Evaluator’s Guide for VMware vSphere (there is also one for Hyper-V if you prefer that hypervisor) covers key getting-started information like system requirements, among other things. It also walks you through the complete setup of Veeam Backup & Replication, and more importantly, it walks you through the process of performing your first backups and restores.

Beyond simply restoring a full VM, which as we know is not always required, the Evaluator’s Guide shows you how to restore:

Microsoft SQL databases

Guest OS files

VM virtual disks

VM files (VMDKs, VMXs, etc.)

Once you are comfortable with the basics of Veeam Backup & Replication, the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide has the full details of all the great things Veeam can do.

The Veeam community

One of the greatest part of Veeam products is the community surrounding it. The Veeam community is huge, and there are a couple of ways to start interacting. First of all is the Veeam Community Forums, which is your one-stop shop on the web for interreacting with other Veeam users, as well as some great technology experts that work at Veeam. You can sign up for free for the Veeam Community Forums right here.

Next, we have the Veeam Vanguards. They are a great group of Veeam enthusiasts and IT pros who share their knowledge not only on the Veeam Community Forums, but on Twitter and on their blogs. Simply search for the #VeeamVanguard hashtag on Twitter to get started interacting with these great folks.

It could not be easier to get started using Veeam products. Veeam offers a free 30-day trial of many of their products, including the flagship Veeam Availability Suite, which includes Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam ONE. You can download the free trial here.

If you are an IT pro, you can also get a completely free NFR license for Veeam Availability Suite. Be sure to fill out the request form here, and get started with Veeam in your lab.